Big Cynic's Political BlogBig Cynic's Political BlogTearing conservatives a new one from a cynic's point of view Articles
Must we destroy the Democratic Party in order to save it?
2008-04-16 19:42:00 If Hillary wins the nomination, I ain't voting for her. That doesn't mean I'll vote for McCain, either. (I'm may be mad as hell, but I'm not crazy.) But if the Clintons manage to swindle the nomination away from Obama with their Nixonian "Bittergate" bullshit dirty campaigning, then I am staying home on election day. Or maybe I'll vote for Obama as a write-in candidate. But it was not always thus. Waaaay back, when it seemed like Hillary's nomination was a foregone conclusion, I was glad. Not only was Bush making the Clinton years look like a golden age, but I also thought, "At least the Democrats will finally run someone who knows how to win an election." After the disaster that was the John Kerry campaign, I'm sure a lot of progressives felt that way. But those feelings were misplaced. After all, the pathetic establishment Democrats who've lost the ability to connect with America — not just frontmen like Kerry but also insiders like campaign man... More About: Party , Democratic , Democratic Party , Save , Order
WashPo trashes Obama while Fox News comes to his defense
2008-04-16 01:34:00 I almost wished I subscribed to the Washington Post—so that I could cancel my subscription. Today, WashPo's "Hey, look, we're not the corporate media, we're hip!" site, Slate, was still harping on the completely fabricated controversy of bittergate — while Fox News was actually defending Obama . And I thought the right-wing conspiracy was to push Hillary as she's seen as more beatable than Obama. Maybe all that Hillary-bashing was all part of an even broader conspiracy, a bipartisan one — to maintain the illusion that the establishment Republicans and Democrats are really that different from each other. More About: Fox News , Defense
The lessons of '70s busing
2008-04-15 19:41:00 Slate has a retrospective photo essay on the race riots triggered in Boston in the '70s by a Federal court order allowing segregation busing — or "forced busing" as it came to be known. This rioting was only one example of the outrage generated nationwide by forced busing, and this essay should also serve as a reminder that the Republican resurgence that is only now being beaten back didn't begin overnight with Ronald Reagan in 1980 and wasn't just built only on Nixonion–Atwaterian dirty-trickery; it was also in large part the result of long years of Democrats shooting themselves in the foot — just because an end result may be desirable in and of itself doesn't mean that shoving in down people's throats is the way to achieve it. Of the notorious image below, the article's author writes that itshattered the illusion that racial segregation and hatred were strictly a Southern phenomenon. For many, Boston now seemed little different than Birmingham.Well, if y... More About: Lessons
WashPo says we say that Iran is our top threat
2008-04-12 00:00:00 Unless you watch Fox News, you probably didn't even know that you consider Iran to be the top threat to your security. I didn't know that, either, until the Washington Post told me so: "Iran Top Threat , U.S. Says" I...
The meter is running ? on Bush and Fox News
2008-04-12 00:00:00 Here it is folks, your Friday Funnies. Time for the Daily Show segment "The Meter Is Running ," which takes a comical look at Fox News over the years. The comedy makes itself, such as Fox's recent propagandistically hilarious ? hilarious... More About: Bush , Fox News
Blackwater's Luftwaffe
2008-04-12 00:00:00 Here's one of the scariest stories I've read all week: Blackwater ? the organization most likely to kill or indefinitely detain you or someone on your block in the coming decade ? is quietly building up its own air force....
Boycott the Olympics? Just because of a little oppression?
2008-04-07 18:17:00 Just what is all this bullshit about boycotting the Beijing Olympics ? Just because of what's going on in Tibet? Since when have the majority of nations in the world not been screwing over some other country or their own people at any given point in time? If proper moral behavior were a requirement for Olympic participation, the only nation sending athletes to China's capital this summer would be Norway maybe — although the Sami may have something to say about that. America, of course, is probably the least qualified to boycott the Olympics over Tibet. How can we wag our finger at China for liberating Tibet when we ourselves have just liberated Iraq? Hell, our nation is founded on the kind of liberation that's going on in Tibet. We liberated this land from the tyranny of the American Indians, the Spanish, and the Mexicans, and liberated a whole bunch of Africans from tribal tyranny so they could come here and enjoy our freedom with us (and do a little work by way of... More About: Boycott , Oppression
Monkeys with car keys
2008-04-07 00:00:00 Check out singer-songwriter Paul Kramer performing his excellent "Monkeys with Car Keys " for a live audience. I love the reactions of the obviously slightly tipsy crowd.
What every American should know about the Middle East—and why we're so un
2008-04-02 20:05:00 Daniel Miessler wrote a great—if not entirely accurate—article that breaks down ten points "Every American Should Know About the Middle East." For instance:2. Not all Arabs are Muslim. There are significant populations of Arab Christians throughout the world, including in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Northern Africa and Palestine/Israel. 4. Shia Muslims are similar to Roman Catholics in Christianity. They have a strong clerical presence via Imams and promote the idea of going through them to practice the religion correctly. Sunni Muslims are more like Protestant Christians. They don’t really focus on Imams and believe in maintaining a more direct line to God than the Shia. Here's a comment that I tried (unsuccessfully) to post to his article:Point 11 should be: They do not hate us because of our freedom. They admire our freedom — the majority do, other than a tiny minority of religious fanatics — and they'd like some of that freedom for themselves, but we keep inv...
How to legalize marijuana
2008-04-01 00:00:00 Face it?the American establishment just has some deep-seated fear and hatred of drugs that you smoke, snort, or inject. Marijuana is bad, but drugs that you drink or swallow in pill form are okay. It's obviously some of oral fixation...
Gore Vidal rips R.I.P. Buckley?and the sellout media?a new one
2008-03-28 00:00:00 Gore Vidal speaks seriously ill of the dead by calling the late William F. Buckley the shameless liar and fascist that he was. But he reserves his harshest condemnation for the real root of the problem ? a mainstream media... More About: Media , Gore , Gore Vidal
The subprime mess explained
2008-03-27 00:00:00 Two Australian comedians give as succinct an explanation of the subprime debacle as you're likely to get from anyone. It breaks down like this: Step 1. Banks lend money to lenders they know will be unable to pay off the... More About: Subprime , Mess
5 + 2 myths about neoconservatives
2008-03-27 00:00:00 Jacob Heilbrunn busts five myths about neoconservatism: 1. The neocons are chastened liberals who turned right. 2. The neocons are Israeli lackeys. 3. The neocons had too much power and took over Bush's brain. 4. The neocons are bloodthirsty ideologues,... More About: Myths
Classic Dubya: exposing the terrorism?tax cut linkage
2008-03-27 00:00:00 From a speech George W. Bush delivered in October 2001: I strongly believe we need to make sure that consumer confidence stays high, by giving people more of their own money back. (Applause.) We need to counter the shock wave... More About: Terrorism , Classic , Linkage , Dubya
Chicken, fish, or 300 kilovolts?
2008-03-23 00:00:00 A freedom-loving company in Canada is trying to sell airlines its idea of making all passengers wear a bracelet that could be remotely activated to give the wearing a debilitating electroshock. Of course this idea hasn't a chance of getting... More About: Fish , Chicken
The war on terror as porn
2008-03-22 00:00:00 Arman Noory, a Canadian high school student, has done an excellent video that manages to (1) break down the B.S. "war on terror," (2) explain the history behind the blowback of 9/11, and (3) be funny, all at the same... More About: War On Terror , Terror
ACLU's terror watch list counter
2008-03-22 00:00:00 From the ACLU website: In September 2007, the Inspector General of the Justice Department reported that the Terror ist Screening Center (the FBI-administered organization that consolidates terrorist watch list information in the United States) had over 700,000 names in its database... More About: Watch , List , Counter
Dying girl's wish to see daddy denied by drug warrior
2008-03-22 00:00:00 A 10-year-old girl dying from brain cancer has one last wish?to see her daddy, who's doing time on a drug charge at Yankton Federal Prison Camp. Daddy 's warden, however, won't authorize the furlough. (The warden, Jim Whitehead, is a compassionate... More About: Dying , Drug , Warrior
Tent city ("Bushville") in L.A. reported by BBC but not by U.S. media
2008-03-20 00:00:00 Just as the American media ignored the supremely ironic story of China very appropriately criticizing the U.S. on its own human rights record, it took the BBC to bring to light L.A. County's Tent City : Forty miles east of Los... More About: Media , Tent City
Herr Governator terminates Dirty Harry to build "Highway from Hell"
2008-03-20 00:00:00 Governator Conan wants to build a toll road through San Onofre State Beach ? of course he does, that's what Republicans do! ? but the members of California's State Park and Recreation Commission have unanimously opposed the idea ? of... More About: Dirty , Hell , Build , Harry , Highway
Don't blame Bush; he's just a front man
2008-03-19 00:00:00 Who cares if the latest book on the Bush presidency ? The Bush Tragedy ? "reveals how Bush?s life and presidency have been misshapen by an intense and unresolved anger"? Does his anger explain why he lied us into invading... More About: Front , Blame
Obama's Philadelipha speech
2008-03-19 00:00:00 Obama just won the nomination and the election today with his "race speech" in Philadelphia. Some are calling it the "race speech," but "unity speech" would be a much more fitting name. Rather than speaking in generalities or rhetorically dancing... More About: Speech
A prostitution loophole
2008-03-17 17:38:00 There's the Indian reservation option—if the reservations are a loophole for getting around gambling laws, then why not use them to get around laws against prostitution? But there's a better way, one that would allow men and women to legally pay for sex without having to drive through a dusty desert. In a word—pornography. Think about it: It's illegal to pay someone to have sex with you, but it's legal to pay two people to have sex with each other if the act is recorded for distribution as pornography. As long as the payer isn't one of the people having sex, the law is happy. (Of course sleeping with a producer or director in exchange for opportunities in front of the camera is also legal, as long as no money changes hands. It's also legal to pay someone a million dollars to pose nude for you—just as long as you don't have sex with that person . . . because that would be immoral.) If we interpret the totality of our laws as society's collective will, then what soc... More About: Prostitution
Governor Schweitzer on Congress's real dumb "Real ID" Act
2008-03-15 21:32:00 In an interview on NPR radio, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer explains what a colossally bad idea the Real ID Act is. Not only will it not work in stopping terrorists, but it will actually make their job easier:Almost all of the hijackers on 9/11 would have qualified for a Real ID. This is the way the system works: You walk into a driver’s license bureau in a state someplace and you present them with a birth certificate. The problem is, we don’t have a standardized system for birth certificates across this country. You give me a half a dozen high school students and a Kinko’s and I’ll, uh, I’ll show you some birth certificates that look very, very real. So, you start with a little bit of garbage and you move through the process, and by the time you get to Congress and present them with a Real ID or you get on an airplane from New York to Chicago and you present a Real ID, it appears as though you have the gold standard of identification.This is a perfect example of what ... More About: Dumb
If Jesus ran for president
2008-03-15 00:00:00 Deepak Chopra wonders what would happen if Jesus ran for president. Come on, folks, it's a no-brainer. Jesus would be too liberal for either party. Republicans would despise his anti-war stance, and Democrats would be too afraid of nominating someone... More About: President
Dems' AMT plan highlights their piss-poor propaganda skills
2008-03-14 00:00:00 The Democrats' proposal was announced by the media with headlines like this: House Democrats Want Tax Hike to Offset AMT Loss Nowhere did I see or hear the proposal called what it really was?tax relief for the middle class that... More About: Propaganda , Highlights , Skills , Poor , Plan
The McCain market sell-off
2008-03-13 00:00:00 Good news for John McCain is being interpreted by the market as bad news?when John McCain futures rally, the market takes a nosedive. It seems pretty obvious to me: Traders are rightly assuming that the continuation of Bush's disastrous policies... More About: Market , Sell
Cheney to visit Mideast to promote peace (no, this isn't The Onion)
2008-03-12 00:00:00 Does any reasonably coherent person at this point seriously believe that anyone in the Bush administration, let alone Dick Cheney , wants or is capable of bringing about peace in the Middle East? President Bush, dispatching Vice President Dick Cheney to... More About: Peace , Promote , The Onion , Visit
Schwarzenegger comes to homeschoolers' defense
2008-03-11 00:00:00 After a California appeals court judge ruled that homeschooling violates California's education law, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger immediately came to the homeschoolers' defense. After all, homeschooling is an important front in the G.O.P.'s War on Public Education, whose goals are twofold:... More About: Homeschoolers , Defense
Elliot "Pimp Daddy" Spitzer learns the hard way
More articles from this author:2008-03-11 00:00:00 The lesson learned from the Elliot Spitzer sex scandal: always pay prostitutes in cash. What were you going to do, write off those expenses? Besides, a really clever politician gets others to pay for his prostitutes. More About: Daddy , Pimp , Hard 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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